Originally posted by: depr
Having been with the IBM Support organization for 14 years, I've seen several iterations of Support delivery. Once upon a time, customers would call in to Support and wait on hold until an available engineer became available. Wait times increased as the products grew and it became untenable to ask customers to wait on the line; customers would await a call back. To try to relieve some of the wait times, a rudimentary problem submission tool called IBM Link was introduced. It allowed customers to submit problem records electronically but it was not able to allow them to attach data. At the time, about 10-15% of customers used the IBM Link tool. One of the nice things about the tool was that it let you read the PMR and interact with Support via the PMR. Still, most customers preferred to open their problem records via voice calls. It is not uncommon, however, for the PMR to be opened with insufficient information, making the first conversation with Support "What's the problem?" rather than "Here's what the issue is".
As time progressed and tools changed, more options have become available. One of the most significant changes is the change over to the Service Request (SR) Tool. With SR, you can open the PMR via a web browser and describe the exact issue, paste in any errors that you see and attach documentation such as logs or traces. It's a tremendous time saver for both the customer and the Support engineer who takes the PMR. You can specify the priority of the issue, your preferred contact method and any information you feel is relevant to the issue. You can also read the PMR in real time and keep tabs on progression at any time of the day or night.
How do you find the SR Tool? You can bookmark the link below, but it's very easy enough to find on www.ibm.com by searching "SR tool".
Here's the direct link - https://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/myportal/open_service_request/software/software_support_%28general%29
Also, here's a link to the Reference Guide on getting started with the SR Tool: http://ow.ly/ct316
#Storage#Storage-Management#StorageManagementandReporting#support#PrimaryStorage